Israel kills one of most wanted West Bank commanders as operation continues
By
Claire Parker,
Annabelle Timsit and
Steve Hendrix August 29, 2024 at 6:36 a.m. EDT
Israel’s military said it killed a prominent Palestinian militant commander as a major operation in the West Bank — which appeared to be one of the largest in the occupied territory in recent years — continued into a second day.
Hundreds of Israeli troops
launched raids in several areas of the northern West Bank on Wednesday, carrying out mass arrests and engaging in gun battles as part of an operation it said was needed to stave off terrorist attacks on Israelis.
Palestinians said the sweeping incursion could fuel further violence and hamper access to health-care and other essential services. Military operations around Jenin and Tulkarm continued Thursday morning, with militant groups there saying they were exchanging fire with Israeli troops.
The Israel Defense Forces announced Thursday that Mohamed Jaber, also known as Abu Shuja’a, was one of five militants Israeli forces killed inside a mosque in Tulkarm after “exchanges of fire.”
Jaber, the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad-led Tulkarm battalion, was one of Israel’s most wanted men for his role in the planning and execution of attacks including a shooting that killed an Israeli civilian, Amnon Muchtar, in the West Bank city of Qalqilya in June.
Abu Shuja’a, 26, has proved an
elusive target for Israel: This spring, Israeli media reported the military had killed him during a raid — before he received a hero’s welcome, alive, at a funeral days later.
The Tulkarm branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirmed the “assassination of our leader” in a statement posted to Telegram on Thursday, referring to Abu Shuja’a. It said its fighters detonated an explosive device and shot at an Israeli infantry unit behind a mosque, causing “direct hits” in response to the killing.
The Health Ministry in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, said in a statement Thursday morning that the death toll from the raids had risen to 12, with those casualties from operations in Jenin and Fara’a, a refugee camp near the city of Tubas. That toll does not include the five men that Israel reported killed in a refugee camp in Tulkarm.
Raed Yassin, director of the Tulkarm Red Crescent, said paramedics have been unable to reach reported casualties in the area because of Israeli restrictions on ambulance movement.
Israeli forces and armed vehicles roamed the empty streets of Jenin on Aug. 29, the second day of an Israeli raid across the West Bank. (Video: Reuters)
Despite the fighting, parts of Tulkarm and Jenin were eerily quiet: The streets of Tulkarm outside Nur Shams, another refugee camp where clashes have taken place, were deserted except for the occasional ambulance. A cluster of Palestine Red Crescent workers waited on a main road largely plowed to rubble by Israeli bulldozers scraping for explosive devices.
Meanwhile, the IDF incursion into Fara’a has ended, according to Adham Odeh, a spokesman for the Tubas regional government — leaving behind scenes of destruction in the tightly packed neighborhoods.
Footage from an Al Jazeera live feed of Fara’a on Thursday showed bullet holes in an office building and streets filled with rubble after having been dug up by Israeli military bulldozers. And photos captured by the Associated Press showed people gathering around a house and a mosque heavily damaged and burned by an apparent strike.
The increased
IDF focus on the West Bank comes after Israel said it has seen a spike in attacks emanating from there, especially the northern areas, in recent months. Fighting also continues in Gaza, where at least 40,602 people have been killed and 93,855 injured since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and says
339 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.
On Wednesday, the World Food Program announced it was temporarily suspending aid deliveries in Gaza after one of its teams was fired on near an Israeli military check point, the United Nations agency said in a statement. The WFP team had escorted a convoy of aid trucks routed to Gaza’s central area on Tuesday and was returning from that mission in two WFP armored vehicles that were “clearly marked,” the organization said in a statement, adding that the team received “multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach” the checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza bridge.
As the team approached the checkpoint, at least 10 bullets hit its vehicle, the WFP said. None of the employees inside was wounded. The agency said that it was “the first time that a WFP vehicle has been directly shot at near a checkpoint, despite securing the necessary clearances, as per standard protocol,” and that it highlighted the risks undertaken by aid workers in the war.
In a statement, the IDF said that it was reviewing the incident and that it values aid workers and humanitarian efforts. “The State of Israel is committed to improve coordination and security with humanitarian organizations to ensure the effective delivery of aid within the Gaza Strip,” it added.
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